“The social issues” are often derided as the cause of GOP backwardness and heartbreaking election defeats.

However, a real examination the GOP reveals a party that, except for the social issues, doesn’t have any real ideas.

If you take the social issues out of the equation, the Democrats appear to be the more attractive party. In the last 24 years, we have had two GOP administrations: Bush I and Bush II. The priorities of the Bush administrations have been free trade, war in the Middle East and spending money. The Wall Street party of the Bush faction watched while American jobs were lost to both China and Mexico. As Donald Trump has repeatedly said, the Chinese are laughing at us.

It’s worth noting that the richest man in the world now lives south of the Rio Grande rather than in the land of Microsoft.

It was the GOP that created campaign-finance reform law.

The GOP fought the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on a credit card, rather than asking the American people to make real sacrifices.

The GOP promised to – but never did – secure the borders. You can’t build an economy on war, debt and cheap imports.

It is rather hard to trust Republicans on education when it is the Bush-Republicans who are responsible for the extra strain on educational resources caused by the enrollment of illegal-alien children and the No Child Left Behind waste.

Is it any wonder that Americans distrust the GOP on health care when the GOP has shipped their manufacturing jobs overseas, and with those jobs have gone the steady employment that would’ve provided health care for many working-class families?

Pat Buchanan asked who killed the middle class.

Others see the contradiction with the party of “God, country, family” obsessing over the economic priorities of multinationals and foreign countries. The Bush/Rove incompetent faction has created a political landscape where Democratic Party ideas are more attractive.

The GOP’s only electoral advancement is with the one-issue voters. Abortion, marriage, religious liberty and, to a lesser extent, homeschooling, are the only issues that provide the GOP with a reliable voter base.

Many Americans are asking themselves: Why, if I don’t care about the social issues, should I vote for the GOP?

That’s a good question.

If Republicans ever hope to win future elections, they must cease being the party of Wall Street and become the party of America. Maybe it’s time the social conservatives ask whether it is the neo-con Wall Street faction that makes them look bad.